World News - Somalia slips ever backwards Hundreds of civilians have died in fighting in Mogadishu - further proof that last year's US-backed Ethiopian invasion did more harm than good.

Predictions that the US-backed Ethiopian invasion of Somalia last Christmas would hasten rather than halt the country's political disintegration are proving grimly accurate. In the league of failed states, Somalia is runaway leader. With international attention focused on Zimbabwe & Darfur, it is the hidden shame of the world. More than 1,000 civilians have been killed or wounded in recent fighting in the capital, Mogadishu, & tens of thousands have fled their homes. The UN says wounded civilians are lying untended in the streets after heavy artillery and mortars pounded residential areas. Since February, 96,000 refugees have swelled the ranks of Somalia's 400,000 internally displaced persons. And despite a temporary truce today, it seems likely that worse is to come. Ethiopia's defeat of local Islamist forces, known as the Council of Islamic Courts, that seized control of Mogadishu last year was accomplished with the help of American air strikes, intelligence and logistical support. ... http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk

Some 4,000 opponents of President Gen. Pervez Musharraf rallied Tuesday in Islamabad in the capital's biggest street demonstration yet against his removal of Pakistan's chief justice. The demonstration by political activists and lawyers outside the Supreme Court during a hearing in the judge's case remained largely peaceful, but was a sign of the mounting pressure on Musharraf to curtail eight years of military rule. ``Everyone should support the chief justice, it is our moral duty,'' Makhdoom Amin Fahim, vice president of the main opposition Pakistan Peoples Party, told the crowd. ``Everyone should also help us get rid of President Musharraf, who is the root cause of every problem.'' Thousands more attended rallies in Lahore, Karachi and Quetta. ...http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6529787,00.html

Venezuelan police have arrested 59 people after a former state governor escaped from jail where he was waiting to be tried on corruption charges. Eduardo Lapi - prominent opponent of President Hugo Chavez - had been in detention since May last year. Police are investigating whether a cake laced with sedatives was smuggled into the prison to incapacitate guards. Interpol and immigration authorities are on alert to prevent the former governor of Yaracuy state from fleeing. Another Chavez opponent - Carlos Ortega - escaped from a military jail near the capital, Caracas, in August 2006. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6523181.stm

Viktor Yushchenko's decision late yesterday to dissolve parliament and order fresh elections appears to plunge Ukraine into its worst crisis since the Orange Revolution.In fact, the country has been in a more or less permanent crisis for a long time. The rivalry between Yushchencko, Ukraine's pro-western president, and Viktor Yanukovich, its Russia-supported prime minister, has paralysed Ukrainian politics for months. This constitutional split reflects the profound divide in Ukrainian society between the Russian speaking east and the Ukrainian speaking west. Some 8 million of Ukraine's 47 million citizens - or 17% - are ethnic Russian. This division extends, often surreally, to Ukraine's institutions. Yushchenko controls the defence and foreign ministries, while Yanukovich has control of the interior ministry - a bizarre arrangement that shows up the disadvantages of Ukraine's dual executive system....http://www.guardian.co.uk/ukraine/story/0,,2049172,00.html

Ukraine's PM Viktor Yanukovych has called the president's decision to dissolve parliament a "fatal mistake". Mr Yanukovych spoke to members of parliament before addressing thousands of his supporters in central Kiev. Members of parliament are also refusing to obey President Viktor Yushchenko's order to prepare for a snap election. The pro-Western president accuses his pro-Russia rival of trying to usurp power by increasing his parliamentary majority in an unconstitutional manner. Mr Yushchenko met Mr Yanukovych in his office, but failed to gain his agreement to implement the decree ordering an early poll on 27 May. ...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6520925.stm

An Iranian diplomat seized two months ago in Iraq by uniformed gunmen has been released a move that suggested progress Tuesday in British efforts to win the freedom of 15 sailors and marines held by Iran. Neither British, U.S. nor Iraqi officials would say if the release of diplomat Jalal Sharafi was linked directly to Britain's efforts to gain its sailors' release. Britain has publicly sworn not to negotiate. And the signals from Iran grew less clear when the Fars news agency published a new picture of the sailors, showing them squatting on a carpet in track suits. The agency did not publish any of the "confessions" that had been condemned by the British government. The caption says: "British sailors are chatting and eating fruit, drinking coffee and playing chess. It seems that the sailors are satisfied with their situation, in which they are enjoying good conditions instead of working in a hard situation in the Persian Gulf." ...http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3003911